Wage discrimination at career entry in Switzerland: Reasons and implications

In recent decades, it has been apparent that the educational and occupational pathways of women and men have been converging. Women, in particular, have benefited from the expansion of education and, with respect to the achievement of general education certificates, have advanced to the same level as men. While the educational attainment gap is closing, the gender gap in the workplace stubbornly persists. Our analysis shows that wage discrimination is not the result of different career paths, but already exists at career entry. “Productivity” variables like formal qualifications and skills do not have any direct impact on wages. Also, different values (e. g. extrinsic or intrinsic work orientation) or different risk preferences are unlikely to influence the wages at career entry. We conclude that the early wage discrimination is partly due to the persistent gender segregation in the Swiss labor market and education system, which stimulate early gender-typed occupational career decisions. Findings show a wage discrimination of 7.3% at career entry. Young women have lower earnings due to lower salaries in traditional female occupations and because of wage discrimination in gender-mixed occupations as well as in typically male professions. In highly segregated jobs, women in typical male-jobs often “choose” or get allocated to specific work contents that go together with lower compensation; men do the contrary in typical female-jobs. These niche activities are economically inefficient because training qualifies women for better paid activities. Young women do not choose or are not allocated to these activities they have trained for. Possible reasons for early wage gaps Unexplainable wage differentials at career entry might be slightly overestimated, and also within our data set. However, the majority of the inexplicable differences in wages are likely the result of discrimination. One possibility is the so-called “statistical” gender discrimination. Companies assume that sooner or later, women tend to reduce their working hours. From the start, these companies consciously or unconsciously pay lower salaries to women, assign them lower paying jobs, or do not admit them the same development in wages as for men. In sociological and economic theory, this effect is referred to as statistical discrimination, because a specific behavior (the one of the companies) is derived from observed probabilities (women reduce their employment more often than men due to parenting). This behavior of the companies discriminates against all women, including those not complying with this assessment and those not intending to reduce their workload, with or without children. Generous family-friendly policies, such as long maternity leaves and/ or part-time work protections, made it possible for more women to work. But they can also enforce statistical discrimination: Woman are more likely to work in low segment, lower paid jobs and less likely to be managers in countries with generous family-friendly policies, as shown by Blau and Kahn (2013) in a study comparing 22 countries. To avoid statistical discrimination, policies should be devised gender neutral. This is apparent in countries/regions including Iceland, Sweden and Quebec, where parental leave policies encourage both men and women to take time off for a new child. Apart from measures against education and labor market segmentation, gender-neutral state policies could thus help to close the early gender wage gap. Secondly, solidarity among men is also likely to play a role. In sociological theory, this behavior is known as discrimination theory, which states that “the same” or “the like” is preferred. As there are many more men than women in superior positions and as such, men more often make employment or wage decisions, they may prefer applicants or employees with similar characteristics, for example. This preferential treatment can also be unconsciously done. Implications Implications of gender wage gap on work and family and the persistence of gender inequalities can be manifold. In order to maximize household-production, young professionals in couple households quickly divide the paid and house work according to the traditional pattern Analyses with TREE-Data show that young couples divide household labor and paid work based on hourly wages. An unequal division of labor will be reinforced over time due to the different, statistically unjustifiable wage developments for men and women. From an economic point of view, and with regard to an optimal allocation of human resources, this development is economically inefficient. The lower incomes of women at career entry also cause these economically problematic dynamic trends. The interaction of all these effects is jointly responsible for the persistence of gender inequalities

What Happened to the PISA 2000 Participants Five Years Later?

The transition from school-to-work has been a burning issue in most countries for the last decades. So far research on this topic has not been conclusive, and it is still not clear whether transition problems are just individual, linked to the type of education followed at upper-secondary level, or just a prolongation of problems arising from poor school performance during compulsory education. This paper uses a unique Swiss longitudinal data-set, which includes information on PISA 2000 scores and the pathways chosen after completing compulsory school. Descriptive results show that students in vocational training, who obtained lower PISA results, are significantly more likely to be in an inadequate employment situation two years after finishing vocational training. Further analysis shows, however, that it is the type of vocational training followed at upper-secondary level that is decisive for the success in the transition. Nevertheless, individual PISA scores have an indirect impact on the transition results, as they are an important factor explaining which pupils are more likely to get into an intellectually demanding vocational training and which ones are not.vocational training, transition, PISA

Tutorat inter-promotions d'étudiants : pour une création du lien social dans l'apprentissage

L'enseignement à distance s'accompagne de la mise en place d'un tutorat afin de garantir une intégration sociale des étudiants et de prévenir le sentiment d'abandon et de solitude de ces derniers face au savoir. Le tutorat entre étudiant permet un accompagnement pédagogique mais surtout relationnel. Cet article présente le contexte de mise en place d'un tel dispositif et en analyse à travers la théorie de l'activité élargie les apports et limites

Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis bei der Begleitung von Praxisphasen in der Lehrerbildung

Mentoring with clear reference to the linkage between theory and practice means that actions between the university and practice are being coordinated. Common efforts are needed at the structural, the communicative and at the level of the learning processes. One strives for an improved linkage between theory and practice. Using the development of the skill of inner differentiation as an example, the study examined effects of coordinative activities in mentoring on (a) substantive relations between theory and practice, and (b) on the assessed skills at the beginning, during and at the end of the learning process. The qualitative interview data was collected from 25 students in the fifth (of six) semesters of their training as a primary school teacher. In the quantitative analysis data from 34 students were used. Conversation analysis showed that the topics, which have been developed during the course at the university did coin the discussions in the lesson meetings. Furthermore, during the course of the learning process the students estimated their skills increasingly higher, but the importance of the skills in question remained constant. The subjective assessments at the beginning and at the end of the learning process correlated statistically significantly with the external assessment of a final written reflection paper.Mentoring mit deutlichem Bezug zur Verbindung von Theorie und Praxis verlangt, dass Massnahmen zwischen Hochschule und Praxisfeld aufeinander abgestimmt werden. Gemeinsame Anstrengungen sind notwendig auf struktureller, kommunikativer und auf der Ebene der Lernprozesse. Dabei erhofft man sich eine engere Verknüpfung zwischen Theorie und Praxis. Am Beispiel der Kompetenzentwicklung zur Inneren Differenzierung untersucht die Studie Effekte koordinativer Massnahamen im Mentoring (a) auf inhaltliche Relationen zwischen Lehre und Praxis sowie (b) auf die eingeschätzten Kompetenzen zu Beginn, während und am Ende des Lernprozesses. Die qualitativen Gesprächsdaten stammen von 25 Studierenden im fünften Semester ihrer sechssemestrigen Ausbildung zur Grundschullehrkraft. In die quantitative Analyse gingen Daten von 34 Studierenden ein. Gesprächsanalysen zeigten, dass die Themen, die im Kurs an der Hochschule erarbeitet worden waren, auch die Unterrichtsbesprechungen prägten. Ferner schätzten die Studierenden ihr Können, jedoch nicht die Wichtigkeit der fraglichen Kompetenzen im Verlauf des Lernprozesses zunehmend höher ein. Ihre subjektiven Einschätzungen zu Beginn und am Ende des Lernprozesses korrelierten im Weiteren statistisch signifikant mit der Fremdbeurteilung einer abschliessenden schriftlichen Reflexionsarbeit

Reduced Injury Prevalence in Soccer Athletes Following GPS Guided Acclimatization

International Journal of Exercise Science 14(7): 1070-1077, 2021. GPS technology has been used to retrospectively correlate injury risk to changes in training load, however the use of GPS technology to plan and monitor training load over an acclimatization period to prevent musculoskeletal injury remains unexplored. This article reports the utility of GPS technology to help develop and monitor incremental increases in training load while transitioning from off-season to in season to reduce musculoskeletal injury. A series of daily minimum standards were established based on observed training loads in year 1 to gradually acclimate soccer athletes over a 5-week period prior to competition season in year 2. Daily check-ins with GPS data were used to ensure athletes met the standards to safely reach the expected training load of a competitive season. Following the 5-week GPS guided training program a lower overall prevalence of injury (Year 1: 92.6% (95%CI = 75.7-100) vs. Year 2: 55.2% (95%CI = 35.7-73.6)) (p = .002) and overall injury rate (Year 1: 8.1/1000 exposure hours (95%CI = 5.2-12) vs 4.6/1000 exposure hours (95%CI = 2.7-7.5) in year 2 (p = .08)) was observed. The observed reduction in injury prevalence and incidence demonstrates how GPS data can be used to proactively design and monitor preventative chronic training load acclimatization programs